Polignac

(de) Ghislaine. Pioneer of ready-to-wear for her ideas, imagination, and sense of the possibilities that technology offered the clothing industry in the 1950s. A princess, and client and friend of many of the most important protagonists of Parisian haute couture, in 1952 she accepted a job as a style consultant working on the renewal of the clothing collections in the department store Galeries Lafayette. At that time their garments had little aesthetic appeal: the fabrics were chosen to appeal to customers for their resistance to wear and tear rather than their beauty, mimicking haute couture in overly traditional and drab colors. It was not an easy task to convince the management of Galeries Lafayette that the most efficient stylistic weapon was simplicity, aided by a more joyful palette and by fabrics with a lighter weave (the princess was also a pioneer in the discovery of the Italian textile industry). She won her battle by wearing her own creations, and getting even Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, to wear them, and by using her title to attract the attention of the women’s magazines. Her career lasted twenty years. She retired in 1972.